One of the last riders of the day and the best smile on the circuit. Alice Naber-Lozeman riding ACSI Harry Belafonte re-routed when Fontainebleau was cancelled for her first trip to Belton
An Eventful Life is filming all riders on cross country at Belton International - find out more here
No-one could topple Laura Collett from the top spot on her score of 39.80 in the CIC3* at Belton International today but it is very tight at the top with only 3.2 penalties separating first from tenth place.
While other classes completed today (more about those during the week) the CIC3* dressage continued with Bettina Hoy slipping in to the draw early in the day after a broken down lorry prevented her from making her allocated time yesterday
Bede Events re-scheduled so that Bettina and Designer 10, who spent eight hours stranded on the lorry, showed no outward signs of suffering from his ordeal and impressed the judges for a score of 41.70 to slot in at that point just behind the overnight leader Laura Collett and Grand Manoeuvre on 39.80
We talked to Bettina, who finished third on Seigneur Medicott and 10th on Designer 10 here last year, about their unusual lead up to the test
Bettina Hoy
Chris Burton and Shane Rose were also early birds on Graf Liberty and Virgil and Chris was relieved that Graf Liberty, who is headed to Badminton, kept his head together in the dressage arena
“He’s a lovely horse but he’s quirky” says Chris
Chris, who won the CIC3* class here last year on Nobilis 18 who went on to win at Burghley later in the year, finished the day in 7th place on a score of 42.60 while Shane on Virgil are in equal 26th place on 46.7 and Shanghai Joe is in 74th place on 54.10. Listen to our full interview with Shane and Chris, and find out why Chris is not heading to Kentucky, here
Jesse Campbell and Cleveland
On Friday New Zealand’s Jesse Campbell had a very good ride on Kaapachino to be in third place overnight on a score of 42.40 – Kaapachino dropped down to finish in sixth place overall but Jesse’s 10 year old Dutch bred warmblood Cleveland, the ‘wild child’, moved ahead of his stable mate with a test that showed some great impulsion and rhythm to hold second place at the end of the day on 41.70
We talked to Jesse just as the scores were coming through
Aoife Clark and Fernhill Adventure
Sharing third place at the end of the day on 41.70 with Bettina Hoy is Ireland’s Aoife Clark on Fernhill Adventure; Aoife’s compatriot Jonty Evans was less happy with his score of 48.20 on his Rio horse Cooley Rorkes Drift saying “I thought that his test was better than the one in Rio” but the judges disagreed, leaving Jonty languishing down the leader board
Piggy French heads into tomorrow’s show jumping and cross country in fifth place on Quarrycrest Echo and Pippa Funnell has two horses close to the top with ChippieH (surely the horse previously ridden by Sweden’s Hedvig Wik?) producing a lovely test for eighth place late in the day and Billy Beware in 12th place
Zara Tindall is readying for Kentucky on High Kingdom and she seemed pretty happy with their test today, finishing in 11th place on 43.10 (above) and Kitty King's Ceylor LAN strutted his stuff for 21st place (below)
